


Finding Truth in the Night

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Gen, Private Investigators, Sneaking Around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 22:15:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20378995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: Ragnor, who spent the better part of the last month buried in dead-end cases, is tired. He needs a break. He's even about to turn down his friend Magnus' request... until he finds out who Magnus wants him to follow.





	Finding Truth in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [sh_ficletinstruments](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sh_ficletinstruments) collection. 

> **Prompt:**
> 
> A weary, cynical P.I. gets a new case.

Ragnor sees the shadow on the other side of the textured matte glass before he hears the knocks on the door.

“We’re closed,” he calls out, not bothering to look. 

The handle moves and the door opens anyway. “Even for me?” 

Ragnor eyes the man with dark-lined eyes and styled hair warily. “Especially for you. What do you want, Bane?” 

“I’ve got a case for you,” Magnus says. 

“I’m not taking any more cases, especially not wild goose chases from you.” 

“I think you’ll change your tune once you hear who I need you to tail,” Magnus tempts. 

“...fine, I’m listening.” 

“Catarina Loss.” 

\---

The three of them are friends but Ragnor’s been too wrapped up in cases lately to notice their mutual friend’s erratic behavior, and Magnus is the least subtle person he’s ever met, entirely incapable of following her to find out what’s going on. Ragnor agrees, with a fee to be determined depending on what he finds out. 

He almost doesn’t believe Magnus - surely if something were wrong Catarina would come to them, would come to  _ him _ \- but when she says she can’t get dinner with him because she has to work he’s already waiting around the block to follow her. 

She heads in the opposite direction of the hospital and his stomach sinks as he snaps the first of many photographs. 

He keeps to the shadows, following her deeper into the bad part of town. These streets are too rough for her to be wandering alone and any business she has here can’t be good. 

“Oh Catarina, what have you gotten yourself into, my dear?” He sighs to himself, continuing to follow until, at long last, she stops walking. He watches her glance around her quickly before disappearing into the side door of a building that’s seen better days. 

His mind races with possibilities (drugs? gambling?) while he waits 60 seconds before following through the door, camera ready. What he sees inside is the last thing he expects. 

Makeshift cots fill the large, empty space of the abandoned building, lit by oil lamps and candles - there’s no electricity here. A child hooked up to an IV drip cries. A grown man is getting stitches for what looks like a gunshot wound. 

It’s an underground hospital. 

“What are you doing here?” 

Catarina’s voice catches him off-guard, so caught up in the discovery he forgot why he’s here in the first place. 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” He demands, countering her question with another question. 

“Would you have let me start this place if I had?” She looks sad. No, tired.  _ Exhausted _ . Judging by the eyes on her she’s running this operation.

“No,” Ragnor admits. “This is too dangerous. If you get caught-” 

“These people need me, Ragnor. I’m not going to abandon them.” Her words are determined, defiant, with a nervous glance at his camera. 

He sighs, taking out the film to ruin the evidence. “Tell me what you need. You aren’t in this alone, not anymore.” 

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
